ah... it's less than a week to my last Race till i take a break for the exams... Exams aren't far away either, they start in early may (7th) and end on the 19th... I'm still revising... i think i'll do OK, its make or break time now. All i can say is that, till then, its nose to the grindstone and when all is said and done, its time to enjoy. Hopping back into the laser radial would be high on the priority list, hopefully the wind will be nice and strong. its such a wonderfully easy boat to sail, sailing it quickly is something else.

The 2009 Sing Siam regatta is this weekend. i haven't read the sailing instructions but i suspect it will be a trapezoid course with an outer loop. i'm hoping there will be either less than 10 knots of wind if i am sailing the standard rig laser, or about 12 knots or more if i'm in the radial. The last time i sailed in this regatta was 2 years ago and i wouldn't say that my results were anything to shout about. Then again my race results aren't ever a talking point. i am however looking forward to racing against Ananda and Zeng... if i was in their position, i'd be thinking of this race as practice for nationals which are at the end of the month. i do wish them all the best! nationals does carry many fond memories and some very spectacular racing. it is "the regatta" of the year for many schools. there will be various new teams such as CJC and YJC, RJC has even purchased new boats! I cant help but wonder how ACS (I) will perform. All the teams this year are strong.

which colour!

i'm getting a new fishing rod... the options are as follows, red binding with yellow trim, yellow binding with blue trim (against this i have a rod with blue binding and yellow trim), grey with a yellow trim and finally orange with a blue trim... the picture red binding with yellow trim is on the way... well of course the last option is to have black binding with a silver trim =) of course if you dont like any of the following colours, suggest one as a comment or tag :p haha... enjoy!

well... since lately i've been talking about sailing loads and did go sailing saturday, where there was a huge storm and we tied our boats to a buoy and were driven back to shore really quick via power boat as lighning flashed all over gloom that shrouded us... anyway we hung out at NSC for about 30-45 minutes before Clayton, Coach Hu and I zoomed back out to sea to drop C and I off to untangle our boats which were being tossed around like corks in a blender by the big waves and the storm. the lightning had stopped but there was an odd flash or 2 every once in a long while... we finally untangled everything after some tense minutes, probably after 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour? and not to mention lots of yelling, and bobbing up and down... we finally were towed to SAFYC Changi and arrived at about 1930... on the way back i was treated to a beautiful rainbow and an equally beautiful sunset! through the remaining clouds too! it was very cold and as we pulled into the dock i was shivering, and extremely late for dinner with my extended family... However, i cleaned up really quickly and Amanda Tang's dad very graciously gave me and my sailing gear a ride to Thompson plaza. thank you so so much =)





here's an entry about all the sailing coaches i've ever had...





i started sailing when i was about... 9 or 10... so here we go... in chronological order when i first started, uncle Jacob taught us... for about 6 months before Francis Huang took over and he coached me till the end of the year... when i was 11, acs pri sailing was moved to NSC which was new at the time. Uncle Foo Say Juan and Hu Jiao Lian coached us... we won the championship that year and of course had trained very very hard in all sorts of wind conditions, we were also quite strong as a team... it consisted of myself, Lei Fengyi, Jackson Ho, Russell Koh, Gabriel Koh, and i think that's all...



I moved to SAFYC, sembawang and Uncle BaBa coached me, i remember countless pushups, mast rake adjustment, and many subtle details and my world of optimist racing was opened up! Sadly, i was never a particularly strong sailor in the optimist, however i remember having a magical day of racing on the second day of racing at the interschool when i was going to turn 12.





in secondary one... i hopped into the topper quite gladly (OH YES! finally i could sail a BIGGER boat), and i sailed under Andrew Tam at SAFYC Sembawang, with the naval base secondary school as well as CHJI (Toa Payoh) and a few other sailors from all over. Changi wasn't in existence at the time... that went for secondary one... and two.... somewhere along the line i switched into the byte which was a welcome change. I simply just HAD TO TRY ONE, there was this longing feeling to get into one, especially after hearing so much about it, and being quite envious of my brother as Dad bought him one... which is now being sailed by my friend, Isaac Foo... i sailed the byte until i was secondary 4 at ACS (Int) and got quite good at it, the most spectacular race i ever had was when i was in 11th and racing towards the finishing line on the reach when a freak storm hit, capsizing many other boats in front of me and i managed to slide across the line in 3rd... i did win a few prizes at the in house race... as well as hopping into the byte, i also started training under Uncle Tony at the weekend. He was very strict about sitting position, tactics and boatspeed which to my mind are fundamental to winning. One cannot have good boatspeed without good sitting position, which controls boat balance, and without boatspeed one cannot execute tactical plans. anyway, that's how i started working hard at my off wind because i was way too light in upper secondary to be compeititve going up wind.



in Pre U, again, i switched boat to the laser... initially i hopped into the laser radial and it was really difficult, especially because the north east monsoon was throwing its weight around with strong winds. i somehow managed not to finish last in my first 3 regattas... in fact i beat a few people! however this made me decide to bulk up and gain some weight, so i gained about 12kg putting me under the optimum weight but it would have to suffice for nationals, where my best race was 9th (2007 nationals) and last year, my best race was 4th... i started at the commitee boat, threw a tack shortly after crossing the start line, tacked back to catch a lift and i was way in front with the other 2 who were leading... that was really cool! it probably matches my best national regatta position that i had in the byte. Admittedly, i'm having a whole lot more fun in the laser than i ever dreamed of having. =) well not to mention i've had a really good coachs since i started sailing, who'd push me, tell me what im doing wrong and get me to try new stuff to help me improve my sailing, and of course encourage me so that i wouldnt give up... mind you, i nearly walked away from sailing more than once... but i stuck with it and persevered...

i sailed yesterday... i sailed, inconsistently, i think the change in season has brought up what i had not realised previously, that i'm not quick in light air, and i question my own tactics too much. i question why, but get no answers, perhaps i lack confidence? perhaps i am a child, set in front of a sheet of paper with numbered dots to form a picture, i just dont seem to be joining the dots with the pencil that i'm holding, or, im joining the dots in the wrong order. fancy thinking of tactics coming downwind but doing the exact opposite having rounded the bottom mark. Valencia was in top form and is really quick in the light air, i on the other hand have been sailing in heavy air. well at least im on the water on saturday so i can work on speed and other things that need work such as boat handling... on the bright side, MJC has new sailors so hopefully i get pushed more so i will be able to improve. Wen's agreed to come sailing on saturday so that will be quite fun i hope... ahh... light wind work has to be done, as well as loosing weight in preparation for the sing siam regatta, i doubt the wind will be strong like in previous years, then again it was light wind at last regatta in Singapore. Just dont capsize (: i wonder who else from the squad will be racing a radial...

thinking back, the first SSR i raced a laser in, was when i was fresh out of the byte. sailing's fun even though its frustrating at times =) note to self: get a Ronstan ballbearing microblock for the outhaul and a new, thinner and longer outhaul line... Gym tmr and running on tuesday... im determined to loose whatever excess fat i have! haha... fat = dead weight, muscle = power & works for you...

May exams are coming... i think i'm going to be ready, i've started studying, i am still studying and learning, its quite stressful thinking about exams... if only we had more hours in the day. on the bright side, i've started using my diary and my time management has improved i think (: exams exams exams... well, its part and parcel of school and i like school... haha... cant wait for the weekend, im going sailing (: